Soda Ban Appeal Set For June While Mayor Responds To "Anti-Bloomberg" Bill

After New York State Supreme Court Judge Tingling struck down the soda ban on Monday as "arbitrary and capricious," the administration confidently filed a notice the following day to get this whole thing sorted out. And it looks like we have a time frame: an appeals court has agreed to hear the soda ban case in the first week of June. Restaurants have, like, four months to gorge on fizz.

Moving on. Yesterday, we went into some detail about a little law making its way through the Mississippi statehouse; the legislation, deemed the "Anti-Bloomberg" act, would revert the power of consumer regulation back into the legislature's hands.

By doing so, no Mississippian municipality can ban sodas or put those pesky letter grades on restaurants. Take that, Big Government!

In a CBS interview on Wednesday, the Mayor chastised the bill as "just farce" and was not hesitant to call shots on the Southern rule of law: "How can somebody try and pass a law that deliberately says we can't improve the lives of our citizens? ... Nobody would believe it if you wrote it in the book."

And, then of course, the statistics of a legacy to back it all up: "The fact of the matter is, in New York City, people live over two years longer than the average across America and over three years longer than they did when we came into office ten years ago."

The bill will most likely be signed by the Governor in coming days. And we're almost positive Mr. Bloomberg will not lose a second of sleep over it.